Backfire
by Lord Dico
Summary: Ember beats Danny badly, after gaining so much power. Sam now has to help Danny recover from his fight, and keep a watchful eye out for him. One sight of his wounds and people will know his ghost secret. Sam even learns more after Danny keeps clawing at his chest with every nightmare. NOTE: There is violence in this...and blood.
1. Stronger Than Ever

**After recently getting back into this series, I've decided to write a story in good motivation *something I've been lacking recently*. So yeah, for the first time in such a long time, here's my first Danny Phantom story.**

** x**

It was soon going into the late afternoon in Amity Park. Over the skies, Danny can be seen flying over in his ghost form, on his way home from school, after dealing with Dash and detention again. It was one of those days that Tucker and Sam couldn't really stay that long for him afterwards. Tucker had to go get ready for his out of town trip, while Sam had to go get the keys from her parents before they went away on business.

He was okay with that.

Something else was on his mind, but he just couldn't shake it. It's been stressful, but now that the week was over, he just wanted to sleep for the rest of the day. As he was in sight of his house, not that it was hard to anyway, he started to feel some nice relief.

'Almost home,' he thought, but then he suddenly felt his ghost sense go off.

"Oh great," he said to himself, stopping, "now what?"

He looked around, and didn't see anything unusual around. No enemies charging, no shadows…nothing. He then felt his sense go off again, and turned around, only to see nothing again.

"Where is it?"

Suddenly, he was knocked in the face by something. He quickly looked around, and still saw nothing. He was then struck again, but still nothing.

"Where are you, coward?!" he exclaimed.

"You really are blind, aren't you?" a familiar voice said.

Danny could recognize that voice from anywhere, but just needed to be sure of it. He floated down to the rooftop, and listened closely. He could hear a faint sound of a flame burning, and with quick reflexes, shot in the direction it was. Target hit. Slowly, a slight burn mark appeared, with a belt below it and slowly revealing Danny's attacker.

"Nice belt, Ember," he said, "is there a thrift store in the Ghost Zone now?"

"Very funny, Phantom," Ember said with sarcasm, "You almost hit my belt there! You're lucky that Skulker's not using it."

"Skulker?" he asked, "How'd you get that from him, bore him to after death with your songs?"

"Shut up!" Ember yelled, her rage making her hair burst into larger flames, as a slight blush also appeared on her face.

She then played her guitar for a ghost ray fist to come charging at him. Danny jumps out of the way, only to be greeted by another attack wave. It was coming at him too quick, that he couldn't turn intangible in time, so he took the hit dead on. This time it was a barrage of blades striking and cutting at him, but luckily it was nothing deep. He felt immense pain throughout his body.

'Damn,' he thought, 'she got stronger since last time.'

"What's wrong, Ghost Kid?" she said as she appeared in front of him, "Can't keep up?"

Before Danny could react, he was then smashed in the face by her guitar again. He's then sent flying into the air, but soon regains his balance. He looks around, seeing her not around, only to be greeted again by her charging down on his back with a strong kick. He could do nothing but scream in agony at her new-found strength. The two crashed to the ground, with Danny under Ember's boot, groaning in pain.

"How…how are you this strong?" he asked, as best he could.

"Well, the belt answers that," she replied, "Skulker created this to allow its user to copy the skills and abilities of any ghost it so desires. So, when I stole this from him, I had it copy his strength and tech choices, such as his swords."

Ember then had the belt morph an iron gloving around her hands, as she looked down at a beat up Danny, who was struggling under her.

"This is a little disappointing, you know that?" she said. "I come here to fight you after gaining some new skill, and you're hardly putting up any effort. I should have come sooner..."

Try as he might, Danny couldn't get out from Ember's strength. She then grabbed him by his suit, and pulled him off the ground.

"Oh, who am I kidding," she said, "I'll just keep beating you to a pulp." She then delivered a strong punch to him directly in the face. He was then flying toward the tree nearby, with ecto oozing out his nose. He tried to steady himself up, but he was only greeted by a swift kick in the stomach. He was down on his knees again, as he changed back to human, with the ecto now becoming his own blood. Most of which was soaking into his shirt from the blade wounds.

"What? Giving up already?" Ember teased, "I'm just getting started."

She then pulled out her guitar and pushed him toward the tree so he was sitting up right. She then switched her power over to a question mark symbol, letting that decide how she finishes off Danny, who was hardly awake at this point. His vision got so blurry due to the loss of blood, that he didn't know what she was doing now.

"Once I'm done with you," Ember exclaimed, "They'll make me the new queen of Ghost Zone!"

"Hey, who's out there?!" someone called out.

Ember then looked over to who it was. Turns out they landed in someone's backyard, and the light was on, but the two were in shadows. Ember squinted at who it was, and then looked back at Danny.

"Meh," she said, "I'll be back to torture you again next time. It helps to savor this victory."

With that, she disappeared and left Danny to deal with whoever was now approaching. He had now lost enough blood to where he had now passed out, hearing that one voice.

"Danny! DANNY!"

** x**

**Dark, ain't it? Yeah, I thought this would be an interesting start for now. But until then…I'm going to sleep for now.**


	2. He's Getting Worse

"Danny! DANNY!"

It was Sam.

Sam rushed over to Danny, who now had blood soaking through his clothes. Sam lifted his shirt, seeing all kinds of nasty cuts, even ones that were getting worse. Best as she could without it hurting him, she lifted him up, now getting blood on her own self, and carried him inside. She then placed him on sofa and ran to get the first aid kit. For the first time, she was really thankful that her parents crammed that much medical knowledge down her throat in middle school.

After a long while, she finally stopped the bleeding, and got him bandaged up. She then put his bloodstained clothes in the wash, and was lucky enough to at least give him some of her father's old pants. She looked at him, now lying on the couch. He looked so…lifeless. More so than in his ghost form. She started to feel tears streaming down her face, as she turned away. If she didn't get there in time, she didn't know what she'd do at that point.

The thought of losing her best friend; someone she had trusted for so long; someone who she just couldn't stand the thought of being without…she then started to feel her heart ache just thinking about it further. She was then brought back to reality, when she heard a phone ringing. It was Jazz calling, and then she remembered as she realized it was half past 10 o'clock.

'Danny didn't get home,' she thought.

She then had no choice but to answer his phone and improvise.

"Hello," she said.

"Sam?" Jazz started, "Where's Danny? He hasn't come home all day, and he's getting us all worried sick!"

It was true. Maddie couldn't stop pacing back and forth in the living room, both angry and concerned about where her son is, while Jack decided to work on some new invention, just to keep his mind occupied. At times they'd give Jazz a quick glance, which made her uneasy, as she talked on the phone.

"Well…" Sam was hesitant, but since Jazz knew Danny's secret as well, she might as well tell the situation, "Your parents aren't in the room, are they?"

"Of course they are. Why...Is something wrong?"

"It's pretty crucial."

"Is it drastic? Like…secret revealingly drastic?"

"More than you think."

"Okay. I'll come by tomorrow to get the rest down, okay?"

"Sure thing, just tell your parents that he had something incredibly important to do, he fell asleep at my place, and couldn't call because his phone died okay?"

"Okay…bye Sam."

"Bye."

As she hung up, Sam decided it would be best to get some sleep…but when she looked over at Danny, she couldn't just leave him lying on the couch, alone. She quickly ran upstairs came back down, now in her pajamas, carrying two large blankets and pillow, and covered one blanket over Danny. Since she was using the couch pillows to support his head, she had used the one she brought down for hers for the floor. When she got herself set, she couldn't help but grip Danny's hanging hand, as she fell asleep with a couple more tears, hoping everything will be alright by morning.

** x**

As Jazz hung up, her parents were now eagerly looking at her.

"Well, where is he and what's going on?" Jack asked, hiding his irritation as best he can.

"Sam told me that Danny had something really important to do at her place for the night, and couldn't call because his phone died," Jazz responded.

"Well, why didn't he just use Sam's?" Maddie asked.

"And furthermore, what's this 'important something' she told you?" Jack also asked.

"Well, she didn't quite tell me what it was, but she seemed pretty nervous about it, so…"

It was then Jack was already getting up and heading for the door. Maddie was still in deep thought, but then came to a conclusion as Jack had grabbed the door knob.

"Jack, don't you know what this means?" she asked.

"Danny's pushing his luck with us, and is getting a good grounding, that what it means!" he said, opening the door.

"No, think about it. Out late with a girl, at her house, 'something important,'…"

Jack then came to a stop. He then turned around, with a bit of a bewildered look on his face. Jazz then suddenly realized what her mother was referring too, and tried shaking that thought out of her head.

"Mom, I highly doubt Danny would be considering THAT, at fourteen years of age," she exclaimed.

That was what got Jack's attention, and his expression turned from confusion to shock. He closed the door, and started walking away into the other room. Now Jazz was the one completely confused.

"I don't want to know," Jazz said.

** x**

**The Next Morning…**

** x**

The next morning, Sam woke up with a hard feeling in her back, mostly since she slept on the floor the whole night. It was then she noticed that she wasn't gripping Danny's hand anymore. She got up, and saw that they were both under the blanket. She lifted it up, but then almost felt like she was going to faint when she saw that some of his bandages were scratched and torn of, and that some blood was on his hands.

Sam really felt mixed about it, but all she could do was remove the bandages and walk to the first aid kit to give him a new wrap. She then noticed Danny was sweating and breathing heavily. His face was flushed, as she placed a hand on his forehead, and it felt hot.

'Crap,' she cursed in her head, worried, 'he's getting a fever too.'

After she at least got the reopened part of his wound bandaged up, she then ran to the kitchen and got a bucket of cold water with a rag soaking in it. She started to wring the rag and placed it on his forehead, causing him to groan from the cold and wetness of it.

She then heard a knock at the door, and in a panic, she took his blanket over his face and went towards the door. She looked through the eye piece to see it was Jazz and opened the door with the chain lock on.

"You're alone, right?" she asked.

"All clear," Jazz responded.

Little did they know, high above in a tree within the distance was Ember. She was peering through a pair of ghost binoculars, eyeing the two ladies, with a smirk on her face.

"Well then," she said to herself, "this could get interesting."

She then used her teleportation powers to where she was now at the building roof across from the house. She then turned on the belt's cloaking from the other night, and looked through the binoculars again.

"So where is he?" Jazz asked.

All Sam needed to do was point at the couch. Jazz walked over and removed the blanket off Danny, and felt her heart leap out of her throat, seeing her little brother with so many cuts over his body. She felt very light headed, almost falling if it weren't for Sam catching her, and steadily guiding her to the armchair.

"I found him in my backyard last night, and found him completely covered in blade marks," Sam explained, trying to keep jazz and herself calm, "He looked like he was on the brink of full-afterlife."

"Do you see who did this?" Jazz asked, just completely frightened by the sight.

"No. I didn't quite get a good look at who it was, but I do know it was a ghost, since it disappeared as I got outside. I did see it wearing combat boots though."

Sam then turned towards the window, not wanting to see more of Jazz's pained face. She then noticed something outside, on top the roof across from them. Suddenly, it disappeared, but Sam got a good glimpse at who it was.

"Ember."


	3. The Hunt starts

"Ember."

Despite it being a low whisper of the rock ghost's name, Jazz was able to hear her. She walked over to her, and didn't quite see anything. They then heard Danny start to moan in pain, and start to toss and turn. Before he was able to fall off the couch, he was then caught in place by Sam, who looked back over at Jazz.

"Maybe we should get him into a bed," she suggested.

The two of them helped lift Danny carefully, and started to bring him upstairs. As they were placing Danny in Sam's bed, Jazz went back to the conversation.

"So," Jazz started, "what makes you think this was Ember?"

"It's a possibility," Sam answered, looking toward Jazz with a fiery look in her eyes, "Shall we go find out?"

"But what about Danny?"

Jazz was right. With Danny in the condition he's been put in, leaving him alone would be one of the worst decisions they'd ever make. Sam was mixed on what to do now, but came to a reasonable decision.

"You should go and get Ember," Sam said, "I'll keep watch of Danny."

"You sure about that?" Jazz asked.

"Well, we can't drop him off at your house, even with how worse he's getting. Plus, I think you'd have a better chance with her."

"Okay," Jazz then pulled the Fenton Peeler and thermos from her purse, and handed it to Sam, "but just in case, you better take this."

"What about you?"

"I'm wearing the specter-deflector, and I've also got a back-up thermos, just in case."

Sam took the thermos and peeler, and was then welcomed with a strong hug from Jazz.

"You have to admit, Danny's lucky to have you as a girlfriend."

"Wait, what was that?" Sam asked, breaking away from the hug, surprised.

"Uh…I said-uh…GOOD friend," Jazz responded, with an awkward smile, "I'll get going."

With that, Jazz headed off, leaving Sam with a look of surprise. She then looked back at Danny, the starting to rise a bit to her face. If he weren't so clueless, he'd know how badly seeing him like this was hurting her. She then took the rag off his head, and started to soak it again. After wringed it and placed it back on his forehead, she looked at the clock, noticing it was now 10:30 in the morning, and grabbed a few clothes before going into the bathroom to get dressed.

After a while, she was now wearing a purple t-shirt, covered by a black vest, along with black jeans, and her combat boots. It was then, she suddenly heard grunts of pain coming from outside. She then exited, only to see it was Danny tossing and turning. However, what caught her eye was that he was scratching at his stomach, tearing off some of the bandages. She then grabbed both his wrists and was now struggling to keep him from clawing at himself.

"Danny, stop!" she exclaimed, "You're making it worse!"

"Gotta…get…back!" he said in his sleep, "Need to…get it…out!"

Sam finally got Danny pinned down, but he was still struggling under her. When he finally calmed down, she let go of him and went back to the first aid kit.

'I'll be out of bandages before he's even halfway better,' she thought, taking out more bandages.

It was then she heard another noise coming from Danny. She looked over and something she rarely saw Danny do in all the years she's been his friend, even when he's sleeping.

He was crying.

For someone who has been battling all kinds of ghosts, dealt with so much conflict, this was the first time she ever seen him in so much pain and him hallucinating so much. It made her heart sink, but what really brought it down, was the next thing he said that cemented it down.

"Sam…"

Sam then made a slight gasp as she blushed greatly. Was he having a nightmare about her this whole time? She then noticed that the torn bandages were revealing his wounds again. However, this time they were giving a ghostly glow, and it wasn't a normal looking one. She then went out of the room and grabbed a few rags, and started cleaning off some of the blood from his hands and patch up the bandages torn.

When she was done, she looked at his face now tear-stained, in deep thought of what was happening. She felt so much rage at Ember; she had to figure out what purpose she had for doing this to Danny, and if there's a way he'll be alright. She then picked up her phone and started calling up Jazz.

** x**

As Jazz got home, she immediately made her way to the weapons. As she was passing through the kitchen, she noticed her father looking at an old photo album. She looked at her dad's expression, deep in thought with a smile.

"Uh…Dad," she said, getting him out of his state of mind.

"Huh! Wha…oh, Jazz," he said, "Is there something you need?"

"I was just…wait, have you been up all night?"

"Yeah, didn't seem that tired, and I just wanted to look back on a few good memories."

Jazz looked at the album, seeing a lot of photos of him and Danny together. This made her curious about what was going through his mind, but right now she'd deal with it later. With that, Jazz went down to the vault, and punched in the codes. As it opened and looked at what equipment she'll need. She took the Ecto-bazooka and the wrist-watch Fenton-Finder, just to travel light and use what was needed. Before she could then head back upstairs, she heard her phone ring, and answered it.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Jazz," Sam started, "Make sure you capture Ember and bring her back here when you do."

She could feel the mix of sadness and hatred that Sam had in her voice, even if it was through the phone. She wanted revenge. All Jazz was able to get out was a 'yes,' and hung up, now heading upstairs. She grabbed her coat and was now out the door. Thankfully since her mom was out in the mornings, she didn't have to find any excuse to give her for taking some of the equipment; it was also a good thing her father was so deep down memory lane, because then he would have wanted to join her and know the real purpose.

She looked at her wrist radar, and saw that there were about seven ghosts in the area. One of them was in the direction of Sam's house, so that had to be Danny. She decided to start with the one farthest from Sam's house, and headed off.


	4. Another Problem

As Jazz set out on her ghost hunt, what she didn't know was that she was being followed by another. Problem for her is that it wasn't appearing on her radar, so she didn't know.

"I can't have her interfere with my plans," it said, "but I might as well keep an eye on her just in case."

** x**

_Danny started to open his eyes, with the crucial pain making him groan. He could tell he was still in town, but something didn't feel right. He tried to stand, but could only get himself to at least sit up, and was soon wide eyed at what he was looking at. The town was completely in ruins, and there were tons of casualties from every corner of the street, some looking worse than the last. The stench of blood and gasoline was hard to take, especially when he was wounded as well, and didn't want what he was seeing to be true. It was then he saw a shadow float above him._

"_Such beauty," it told him, "isn't it?"_

_Danny held his breath. The sound of that voice had him frozen with fear or want to run away as fast as he can. The shadow made Danny see that it was getting closer toward him, but couldn't get himself to fly out of here, and not just because of the pain he was in._

"_It's no use, Danny," the ghost said, dropping an object into Danny's lap, "It's already too late."_

_Danny looked at the object and he could feel tears starting to stream down his face. He felt more pain in his heart as he placed his hand on his chest, gripping his shirt tight._

"_Even if you did find a way back, you won't be able to do jack."_

_After that, he could sense the ghost disappear from the area. Soon, all Danny could hear were screams of terror and agony in his head. He felt his grip on his chest get tighter with every passing second. Every scream was followed by those words repeating in his head as well._

"_He's lying…"_

'_It's too late.'_

"_No!"_

'_Danny!'_

"_NO!"_

_Danny was now starting to lose it, and attempt to claw at his chest, but he felt his arms being restrained for some reason. He tried to fight whatever was keeping his arms restrained, but he saw nothing. The harder he struggled, the more he started to feel himself get weaker and unable keep conscious. When he finally gave up on resisting, he fell back onto the ground, tears still streaming down his face. He then saw it start to rain, but he could only feel his face get hit with water._

"_Sam…no…" he whispered._

Danny was finally starting to calm down after another struggling nightmare, but this time with Sam prepared to keep him from scratching at his chest. With her hands keeping Danny's down, she couldn't stop her own tears from dropping down onto his face. The struggles were becoming more violent than the last, and this was really starting to make Sam worried. She really wished Jazz would find Ember soon so she can fix this.

When he was finally calm again, Sam let go of his wrists and went over to her desk. She looked at her clock and saw that it was well into the afternoon. She then picked up her phone and started to call up Jazz again.

"Jazz," she said to herself, "Please, pick up. Please, hurry."

No answer.

She figured Jazz would be in the middle of fighting or something. Sam just needed to keep herself distracted about the situation, and decided to put on some music. Even as a Goth, Sam at least had some normal orchestral music that could soothe her down whenever she had gotten sick and needed to sleep. After a while, the music really started to help her relax, and soon unconsciously crawled into her bed, falling to sleep.

** x**

As Jazz was on her ghost hunt, she was on hot pursuit of the Box Ghost. As she got a good shot at him, allowing him to slow down, she pulled out her thermos and sucked him into it. Once secured, she then started scouting the area. When she saw that the coast was clear, she then went over to a nearby park bench and sat down in exhaustion.

"Damn," she said, "Now I know how Danny felt during his first time hunting. I never knew how REALLY annoying catching the Box Ghost would be solo."

It was then her thermos gave off a slightly audible "BEWARE!" in response. She then looked back at her radar, but when she did she was now in shock. There was only has one more ghost left to hunt, but it was now close to the other one on her radar. She assumed Ember was now after Danny.

"Oh no," she said, reaching for her phone, "I've got to call Sam and warn her!"

Just as she was about to dial, she was then delivered a surprise attack, and sent flying into a tree. She looked up to see where the attack came from, but she saw nothing. She checked her radar and saw no ghost nearby appear on the radar. She was then given another surprise attack, but was quick enough to dodge it.

'For the love of…Where are you?!' she thought, getting into position.

Still no sign of the assailant, but when she heard something, she fired in the direction and hit her target, which happened to be its belt. As Jazz started to dial and call, the ghost's cloaking started to wear off so she could see her opponent more clearly…but it was more than she expected.

"Come on, Sam," Jazz said, "Pick up already!"

No answer.

As she was about to redial, a blast shot her phone to bits, burning her hand. She looked back up and saw her opponent approaching towards her. She then started to aim, but it then started to fire at her. She attempted to dodge, but her specter-deflector was hit, and was starting to malfunction.

"Oh crap!" she exclaimed with fright, trying to fix it, "No, no, no!"

"Looks like you've got nowhere else to run," the ghost said, as it approached Jazz.

** x**

_All he could do was lay there in defeat. He let him win. He had lost. All he could do was lay there, letting the rain fall upon him. He opened his eyes to see the dark cloudy sky, with tears streaming out being the only thing he can do. He felt so lonely. He just wanted to find someone to be with, no matter who or what it was._

'_What's the point?' he thought, 'What's the point of being a hero if I can't even save one life?'_

_It was then he felt his ghost sense go off, right next to him. He turned his head and saw something that made his heart leap. He wanted to say something, but he just couldn't bring himself to it. It didn't matter to him. He simply reached out and held that held her tight. What caught him off guard was how warm the embrace was. It was like she really was there._

_It felt so real…_

"_Sam," Danny started, "I'm so sorry."_

** x**

Danny started to open his eyes slowly, but it took a while to adjust to the lights. He looked to see that he was with someone right in front of him, but what really seemed to catch his attention was how close he was to that person. In fact, he was in a strong embrace, just like in his dream. He traced his eyes to that person's black hair, and looked around the room and knew exactly who he was with.

He was now blushing heavily, and was now slowly trying to let go of the embrace. Despite how nice it did feel he just couldn't imagine what Sam would do if she woke up and found him like this. As he was finally out of reach, he was about to make a break for it, but the striking pain in his chest and sudden dizziness fought against him.

"Wh-what the…?" he said to himself, trying to regain his balance and holding onto his chest.

He sat back down on the bed and saw the many bandages that were all over his body. He then placed a hand on his head, and felt the burning sensation on his forehead. It was then he started to remember the events that happened before he blacked out.

"That's right…"


End file.
